About the Awards

The Abbey Scholarship offers an early career painter a full academic year (October to June) at the British School at Rome.

The Abbey Fellowships offer mid-career painters three months at the School during the same period.

All living expenses are covered and stipends are paid. The Abbey Scholar will receive £700 per month and the Abbey Fellows will receive £800 per month. The Abbey Scholar will also receive a travel award of £100 established in memory of Rosa Lee who was a member of the Abbey Council until her death in 2009.

Candidates must decide whether they wish to apply for the Scholarship or for a Fellowship. They cannot apply for both.

The Incorporated Edwin Austin Abbey Memorial Scholarships were founded by Gertrude Abbey in 1926 to enable British and American painters to pursue their artistic practices. Since then, there has been a tradition that recipients of Abbey funding – Scholars and, more recently, Fellows - spend time working in the studios at the British School at Rome and there has been an Abbey Scholar at the BSR almost without interruption up to the present day. The Abbey Fellowships (formerly awards) were established in their present form in 1990.

Artists' Gallery

An Abbey residency at the British School is an unique opportunity for painters to get away from the pressures of their everyday lives and work without interruption, with the added charm of living in and becoming familiar with the most fascinating city of the ancient and modern world.

There is Classical Rome, still part of the living city, the Catholic Rome of the Vatican and the many churches, Renaissance Rome, the Rome of Caravaggio and his contemporaries, and the Rome of the cinema.

But there are also the many attractions of modern Rome with its dynamic contemporary art scene, to which artists at the British School have ready access.

One of the studios (south view)

The Assistant Director, Fine Arts, is responsible for all the artists during their stay. He organises many visits to places of interest in Rome and excursions to other parts of Italy, some of them to sites normally closed to the public.

Artists are encouraged to talk about their work and are given the opportunity to put on studio shows, to which Italian critics and gallerists, among others, are invited.

There is a separate small gallery at the School, where exhibitions by resident and non-resident artists are held. Each year the British School publishes a Catalogue of artists' work and an Annual Report which also features the work of resident artists.